"Old Boy" Baseball

Today I had a special excuse to leave work on time... I was going to watch the General Manager of the Mitsui Nagoya office play baseball!!

The 32nd annual baseball event between "Japan OB's" and "Local Execs" was held at the Nagoya Dome and consisted of retired Chunichi Dragon players vs. Presidents/Executives of Nagoya businesses!

(Side Note: OB is a common term in Japan meaning "Old Boy" or anyone who is retired.  Guess what Dad's new nickname is gonna be when I see him in a few days?!  LOL.)

The players were mostly in the late 50's and early 60's, but there were 3 players who were 75 years old!! 

In fact, one of them was playing first base for the "Local Execs".  Sure, that position doesn't require a lot of running, but you certainly gotta stay alert and have some great catching skills. 

Impressive to say the least, but who is still working when they are 75?  When the heck are these guys gonna retire and let someone else be CEO?!

Here's the Mitsui GM Mr. Hanagata up to bat. 

He is a lefty, and sadly he drilled a hit down the first baseline for a swift Out.

You may recall Mr. Hanagata as one of my kind translators during our trip to the Mitsui Forest.

It was hilarious to see a crowd full of men in suits and ladies in their office clothes rooting for their bosses.

I wonder how many people felt obligated to go due to pressure from their boss.  (Mr. Hanagata stopped by my desk today to ask if I was still going to come and support him, but I'll use pretty much any excuse to leave the office at 5:30!!)

Tickets were free to this event, but you did have to sign up and collect them from work prior to the game.

There were no concession stands open, so instead they gave each person free cans of beer and a bag full of snacks when you walked in!

In addition, there were no cleaning crews working at the Dome, so they announced that everyone should pick up their own trash when leaving.  Gotta love Japan and their rules!  As we were leaving, I didn't see a stray empty can or wrapper anywhere.  (Do you think we could ever pull that off in America?!)

When Ema and I arrived in the 3rd inning, the score was 7-1 favoring the Local Execs.  I was trying to decide if the Japan OBs were just going easy on purpose, but I soon discovered that wasn't the case.  Final score was 8-6, and the Execs finally broke their 11-year losing streak!

I've never noticed this before, but at the end of the game, the players all meet in the field and bow to each other!!  LOL.  Total Japan!  I love it... so funny that there's no hand slapping!!

Notice the 4 ladies standing up in the bottom of the picture above. 

They were all wearing kimono, and Ema tells me they were "working" girls.  (Not prostitutes per se, but if you've seen the movie Memoirs of a Geisha, you know what I mean.)  Apparently, these ladies work at some kind of local gentlemen's club, and the businessmen are very important clients.  Some ladies had to leave in the middle of the game, presumably to go to work entertaining other clients, while many stayed to cheer for their men.  I should mention that 99.9% of all businessmen are married... Awkward!!!

The game was a lot of fun and really entertaining! 

One OB stuck his leg out while batting in order to get hit by the ball, and then charged the mound in mock fight before taking his base :)

Many of the players were moving pretty slow when walking back to the dugout between innings or after being tagged out, but I'm not complaining!  It was awesome to see them run to catch pop flies and speed around the bases.  There were even several double plays!

One of my friends from work, Hariyama, was watching the game with her dad, whose company executive was also playing.  I thought it was adorable because you don't usually see men and women out together in Japan unless they are married.  (Another crazy rule!)

I learned that "Nice Catch" is the same in either language, so whenever a pop fly was caught, I could chime in...

The uniforms for the Local Execs looked pretty professional to only be used for one game, and I decided since all Japanese men are basically the same size, they are likely used year after year by random players!!

On my subway ride home, check out the sweet train I got to ride on!! 

I've never seen this Dragons train before, and it's decorated inside and out!

And what amazing luck since I was actually coming from the Nagoya Dome to see some former Dragons play ball!